In the water hydrant industry it is desirable to build outdoor hydrants that are easy to install, freeze proof and that can prevent undesirable flows such as backflow where contaminated water from outside a hydrant might flow back into the hydrant and the hydrant water supply. There is also a need for an outdoor hydrant that provides hot and/or cold water.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,039 discloses an anti-freeze outdoor hot and cold hydrant. In the U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,039 patent the water outlet 44 is placed between the hot and cold operators 40. In this arrangement the hydrant has only one correct orientation limiting the options an installer has for the hydrant. The operators 40 must be mounted side by side requiring a wide space for installation. Failure to install the hydrant in a side by side orientation would not only result in an odd looking hard to use hydrant but would also trap water in the cavity of the hydrant leading to freezing of the hydrant. Home owners and others may also not like the wide, side by side appearance. The check valve 46 allows water to escape from the hydrant body 28 to prevent freezing in cold weather. Because the check valve 46 is fairly large there is limited space for the operators 40 making them more difficult to operate. In some applications it may be necessary to have the inlet pipes to a hot/cold hydrant oriented vertically and in other applications a horizontal orientation may be required. Commonly, homes with basements will have the hydrant inlet pipes horizontal and slab homes without basements will require a vertical orientation of the hot and cold inlet pipe as the pipes will commonly come through, and be hidden within a standard 2×4 interior wall which is too narrow for the horizontal orientation. With prior art hot/cold hydrants it was necessary to have two separate products to satisfy the different applications, one hydrant was horizontal, the other vertical. This required a substantial investment in tooling and extra inventory for manufacturers supplying the hydrants.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,964,246 discloses a box mounted hydrant having an outlet 146 that swivels out of the box to allow for use. This box mounted type hydrant is fairly difficult to install and has only one correct orientation. While the single handle operator may solve some of the orientation and width problems of the prior art, it is not universally accepted for outdoor use.
As can be seen there is a need for a hot and cold outdoor hydrant that is easy to install and maintain.